My talk with A Star Is Born cinematographer Matthew Libatique is up over at Filmmaker Magazine. The film was shot on Arri Alexa Minis with Cooke/i SF Camtec Vintage Series and Kowa Cine Prominar anamorphic lenses. Here’s a preview, where Libatique discusses using the Kowas, what he loves about anamorphic, and why he stays loyal to the same rental house.
I found a few images of behind the scenes set-ups on the Blu-ray featurettes of Elf. They offer a glimpse into how cinematographer Greg Gardiner used forced perspective to create the illusion that Will Ferrell’s Buddy the Elf towers over his North Pole counterparts.
Check out more in the Shot Behind the Shot series.
Year – 2018
Decade – 2010s
Cinematographer – Darren Lew (imdb link)
Director – Cary Joji Fukunaga (imdb link)
Aspect Ratio – 2.39
Distributor – Netflix
Genre – Drama, Sci-Fi
Camera – Panavision Millennium DXL (optics by Panavision, color science by Light Iron, 8K large format sensor by Red)
Lenses – Panavision Anamorphics – C Series, E Series and T Series
Format – Digital
Categories
Clink on any link to see similar frames from other films.
Shot/Reverse Shot Color Profile Low Contrast
Center Framing Lens Flare Diners Courtroom
Elevators Wide Angle Lens Establishing Shots Hotels
Iris Office Frame Within Frames
Inserts Bench Shafts of Light Foreground/Background
Car Wreck Long Takes
The Show
Two participants in a pharmaceutical trial (Emma Stone, Johan Hill) find themselves intertwined in the trial’s therapuutic series of drug-induced delusions. Continue Reading ›
In honor of the passing of cinematographer turned director Nicolas Roeg, here’s Martin Ansin’s alternative poster for Roeg’s 1976 film The Man Who Fell to Earth. In addition to his own films as director – highlighted by Walkabout (1971) and Don’t Look Now (1973) – Roeg shot The Masque of Red Death (1964) for Roger Corman and Fahrenheit 451 (1966) for Francois Truffaut.
The awesome film site Cinephilia and Beyond has an excellent post about Don’t Look Now to check out that includes Roeg interviews and a copy of the film’s script.
Year – 2017
Decade – 2010s
Cinematographers – Vanja Cernjul, Pepe Avila del Pino (pilot)
Director – various
Aspect Ratio – 1.78
Distributor – HBO
Genre – Drama; Period (1970s)
Camera – Panasonic VariCam35, Arri Alexa (pilot only)
Lenses – Spherical; Panavision PVintage; Panavision Primos (pilot only)
Format – Digital; Shot in V-Log in HD (1920×1080) resolution with ProRes 4444 compression
Categories
Night Exteriors Car Shots Frames Within Frames Bars
Silhouettes Wide Shots Full Shots High Angle
Title Cards Mirrors Shafts of Light
Mercury Vapor Streetlights Sodium Vapor Streetlights
Clink on any link above to see similar frames from other films.
The Show
The legalization of pornography alters the lives of the denizens of New York’s seedy 42nd Street circa 1971. Continue Reading ›
I don’t remember what internet rabbit hole led me there, but a while back I ended up on a Flickr stream called Leopardtronics – and discovered a cache of high-res cover scans of German VHS tapes. I’ve compiled a batch of my favorite horror covers and shared them below. The feed has thousands of more images of VHS and vintage pulp novel art to sift through.
And if you want more analog goodness, here’s some past features from the blog…
The 100 Greatest VHS Horror Covers
More than 100 French VHS Horror Covers
40 Classic Japanese VHS Covers
More than 50 Brazilian VHS Covers Continue Reading ›
Year – 1968
Decade – 1960s
Cinematographer – George Romero
Director – George Romero
Aspect Ratio – 1.37
Genre – Horror, Zombie
Camera – Arri 35 IIC (More on the Arri 35 II series of cameras)
Format – 35mm; Black and White
Production Info – Budget of $114,000 and shot in 30 days, which were spread out over seven months as Romero took breaks to tend to his Pittsburgh commercial production company
Key Words – Close-Ups
Click on any of the links above to view other films featured in that category
The Movie
A group of bickering survivors hole up in an isolated farmhouse besieged by the undead in George Romero’s immeasurably influential Night of the Living Dead. The film redefined not only the zombie movie but the horror genre itself, drawing a clear line of demarcation between the genre’s history of gothic monsters and enlarged radioactive creatures and the more angry, violent and transgressive contemporary horror of the 1970s. In commemoration of Night of the Living Dead’s 50th anniversary, I’m looking back at some of my favorite frames from Romero’s directorial debut. Continue Reading ›
Here’s a link to my latest piece for Filmmaker Magazine – an interview with First Man cinematographer Linus Sandgren. The Neil Armstrong biopic was shot on a mixture of Super 16mm, 35mm and 70mm IMAX with many of the effects created practically in camera by placing spacecraft replicas on gimbals in an Atlanta soundstage decked out with giant LED screens. The climactic moon scenes were shot in an Atlanta quarry and lit entirely with one 200K bulb created specifically for the film. Production had only two of the prototype bulbs – one of which blew on its first day of use.
A snippet of the story is below. Also, check out my previous talk with Sandgren about his Oscar-winning work on La La Land.
